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Why Do Instructors Teach With DataCamp?

What drives DataCamp instructors to make data science courses? Find out in this post!

DataCamp’s mission is to be the world’s leading online provider of data science training. In order to do that, we need to recruit the best instructors from both industry and academia, and in order to do that, we need to understand why people teach with us.

That’s why we asked 21 people who have recently started developing courses for us why they teach with DataCamp. Then, we categorized and counted their free-text responses.

The results may surprise you:

Count

Category

13

Learn how to build better courses/teach better in general.

12

Deepen my own understanding of the subject.

10

Help my colleagues/students.

10

Create a better explanation of the subject than is currently available.

9

Learn how to build automated online courses.

5

Create materials that I can re-use elsewhere.

4

Join a cool community.

4

“It’ll be fun.”

2

Raise standards in my field/show people how to do things the right way.

2

Make money.

2

Learn how to use specific tools like the Jupyter Notebook.

2

Explain something that isn’t explained anywhere else (yet).

1

Pull myself out of my comfort zone.

1

Help people think about ethical uses of data.

1

Good for my career/the prestige of being a DataCamp instructor.

1

Easier than doing it on my own.

The top five reasons comprise more than two thirds of all responses. Three of those top five are about instructors learning things themselves: the subject matter, how to teach in general, and how to teach online. The other two are about helping others, either in general or more specifically their colleagues and students.

While these answers are undoubtedly biased by people not wanting to say, “I’m in it for the money”, it’s clear that people want to help others and to become better teachers.

In the coming months, we will look at ways of aiding both by further enhancing our online community and by making educational materials available to those who can benefit from them.

As always, we welcome your ideas and suggestions: make sure to leave a comment below!